Digital recording of IP based distributed switching platform

ABSTRACT

A system and method for recording and/or otherwise monitoring IP multimedia sessions. The present invention features a recording and/or monitoring device, referred to hereinafter as “a recording device” for the purposes of clarity only and without any intention of being limiting. The recording device is a participant in the IP multimedia session, although preferably the recording device only receives data for recording and/or otherwise monitoring the session. Therefore, the IP multimedia session is preferably a multi-user session, such as a “conference call” for example, even if data is being provided for recording from only one of the participants in the session.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and a method for recordingvoice and other data passed through IP multimedia sessions, and inparticular, for such a system and method in which recording is triggeredwith the recording device as a participant in the session.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telecommunication is an important aspect of interactions betweenindividuals, as it enables individuals to communicate without beingphysically present in the same location, thereby potentially increasingthe possibilities for cooperation between such individuals.Simultaneously, an increasing number of telecommunication sessions arebeing monitored and/or recorded, for example for quality assurance at a“help desk” or other customer support center or service.

Previously, such monitoring or recording was relatively simple in thebackground art. For example, telephone calls may typically be passed tothe individual through a PBX (public exchange) switch or CO (centraloffice), which features a central switching matrix. All telephone callspassing this switch would therefore pass through the central matrix,such that integration of the recording and/or monitoring equipment withthe central matrix would enable all such telephone calls to be recordedand/or monitored.

Unfortunately, monitoring and/or recording such telephone calls throughthe IP multimedia session protocols is not as simple. First, the sessionis multimedia, such that it may combine two or more different types ofdata. Second, the session does not pass through a central switchingmatrix, as IP communication does not feature such a matrix. Thus, suchcommunication is relatively diffuse, even across a WAN (wide areanetwork) or LAN (local area network).

The situation is further complicated by the topology of the IP network,which consists of switch boxes, routers and bridges, and which mayprevent any recording and/or monitoring system from accessing suchcommunication sessions that are routed on different network segments. Inaddition, encrypted sessions add a further element of complexity, asaccess to such sessions is typically only granted to participants, asonly participants have access to the necessary information to decryptthe encrypted session.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The background art does not teach or suggest a solution to the problemof collecting information about an interactive session over an IPnetwork. The background art also does not teach or suggest a solution tothe problem of monitoring and/or recording IP multimedia sessions. Inaddition, the background art does not teach or suggest a solution to theproblem of monitoring and/or recording IP multimedia sessions that arerouted on different network segments.

The present invention overcomes these problems of the background art byproviding a system and method for recording and/or otherwise monitoringIP multimedia sessions. The present invention features a recordingand/or monitoring device, referred to hereinafter as “a recordingdevice” for the purposes of clarity only and without any intention ofbeing limiting. The recording device is a participant in the IPmultimedia session, although preferably the recording device onlyreceives data for recording and/or otherwise monitoring the session.Therefore, the IP multimedia session is preferably a multi-user session,such as a “conference call” for example, even if data is being providedfor recording from only one of the participants in the session. Thisimplementation of the present invention, as described in greater detailbelow, overcomes such drawbacks of the background art as the inabilityto otherwise decrypt encrypted sessions, and recording across networksegments.

Hereinafter, the term “separate network portion” includes any separateportion or network across which recording is performed, such as adifferent network segment and/or network for example.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, therecording device is present on a network with a conference control unit,such as a MCU (multi conference unit) for example. Hereinafter, the term“conference” is used to refer to any multi-participant session, even ifonly two participants are present, one of which is the device of thepresent invention. The conference control unit either receives a requestto initiate the conference call (multimedia session) from the recordingdevice of the present invention and/or from one of the participating IPcommunication devices, and/or from some other component on the network.Examples of such communication devices include, but are not limited to,IP telephony devices, “smart” IP telephones and computational deviceswhich include an IP telephony component.

According to another optional but preferred implementation of thepresent invention, the recording device is the NiceLog™ product of NiceSystems Ltd of Ra'anana, Israel.

Hereinafter, the term “computational device” refers to any type ofcomputer hardware system and/or to any type of software operatingsystem, or cellular telephones or any type of hand-held device such as aPDA (personal data assistant), as well as to any type of device having adata processor and/or any type of microprocessor, or any type of devicewhich is capable of performing any function of a computer.

For the present invention, a software application or program could bewritten in substantially any suitable programming language, which couldeasily be selected by one of ordinary skill in the art. The programminglanguage chosen should be compatible with the computational deviceaccording to which the software application is executed. Examples ofsuitable programming languages include, but are not limited to, C, C++and Java.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is herein described, by way of example only, withreference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary system according tothe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an exemplary method according to the presentinvention for recording and/or otherwise monitoring IP multimediasessions;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an optional flow of operations according tothe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a second exemplary systemaccording to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of another exemplary method according to thepresent invention, with regard to the implementation of the presentinvention with a “hunt group”.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is of a system and method for recording and/orotherwise monitoring IP multimedia sessions. The present inventionfeatures a recording and/or monitoring device, referred to hereinafteras “a recording device” for the purposes of clarity only and without anyintention of being limiting. The recording device is a participant inthe IP multimedia session, although preferably the recording device onlyreceives data for recording and/or otherwise monitoring the session.Therefore, the IP multimedia session is preferably a multi-user session,such as a “conference call” for example, even if data is being providedfor recording from only one of the participants in the session.

Optionally, only a portion of all such multimedia sessions are recorded,although alternatively, all such sessions are recorded. The recordingdevice may optionally receive a command for determining when a sessionis to be recorded. Alternatively, the recording device may receive datafor all such sessions, but may preferably only record certain sessions.More preferably, a scheduler determines whether the session should berecorded, which may optionally be located with the recording device butalternatively is separated on the network.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, therecording device is present on a network with a conference control unit,such as a MCU (multi conference unit) for example. Hereinafter, the term“conference” is used to refer to any multi-participant session, even ifonly two participants are present, one of which is the device of thepresent invention. The conference control unit receives a request toinitiate the conference call (multimedia session) from the recordingdevice of the present invention and/or from one of the participating IPcommunication devices, and/or from some other component on the network.Examples of such communication devices include, but are not limited to,IP telephony devices, “smart” IP telephones and computational deviceswhich include an IP telephony component.

According to another optional but preferred implementation of thepresent invention, the recording device is the NiceLog™ product of NiceSystems Ltd of Ra'anana, Israel.

According to other optional but preferred embodiments of the presentinvention, the IP multimedia session may also include one or more non-IPtelephony devices, such as a telephone device communicating through thePSTN (public switched telephony network). For this embodiment, thesystem of the present invention preferably features a gateway forreceiving such communication and for enabling the data to be passed toother components of the present invention, including but not limited tothe recording device.

According to another optional but preferred implementation of thepresent invention, the system and method of the present invention areenabled for “hunt groups”, which use a plurality of virtual telephonenumbers rather than fixed telephone lines that are reserved forparticular telephone numbers. Hunt groups are well known in the art; oneexample of a suitable reference is found in “Newton's TelecomDictionary”, 16th Expanded & Updated Edition, by Harry Newton (publishedin 2000, by Telecom Books; page 414), which is incorporated by referenceas if fully set forth herein. Hereinafter, the term “hunt group” refersto any type of virtual or non-fixed telephone extension systems, inwhich a central control unit of some type, such as the gatekeeper of thepresent invention, determines the physical extension which is used.

The present invention may also optionally be implemented with a numberof well known protocols in the background art for multimedia IPsessions, including but not limited to H.323, RTP (real time protocol),RTCP (real time control protocol), H.225 and H.245; as well as CODECsfor encoding/decoding the multimedia data for such sessions, includingbut not limited to, G.711, G.723, G.722, G.728, H.261 and H.263; all ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.In addition, references may be found athttp://www.normos.org/ietf/rfc/rfc1889.txt as of Aug. 17, 2001, whichare also hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein,including all links and other data/Web pages found at the Web site.Further information may also be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,665, issuedSep. 19, 2000, which is also incorporated by reference as if fully setforth herein.

The principles and operation of the method according to the presentinvention may be better understood with reference to the drawings andthe accompanying description. It should be noted that the presentinvention is described with regard to IP telephony for the purposes ofclarity only and without any intention of being limiting.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows an illustrative system 10for recording and/or otherwise monitoring an IP communication session,which may optionally be a multimedia session. The session may optionallybe initiated at any one of an IP telephone 12 on a LAN (local areanetwork) 14; an IP telephone 16 on a WAN (wide area network) 18; and atelephony device 20 communicating through a PSTN (public switchedtelephony network) 22. Examples of suitable IP telephones include butare not limited to, VIP 30 or SP+12 (Cisco Inc., San Jose, Calif., USA).Preferably, the actual handling of the session is slightly different foreach of these different initiating devices, as described in greaterdetail below.

As shown, LAN 14 features a recording device 24. According to anotheroptional but preferred implementation of the present invention,recording device 24 is the NiceLog™ product of Nice Systems Ltd ofRa'anana, Israel. This product features a monitor for monitoringactivity through voice telephony on an IP network. Although the activityis monitored through voice telephony protocols, other types of data mayalso optionally be monitored, such as video and audio datatransmissions. The monitor component of the NiceLog™ product includes arecording function to record these voice and other types of datatransmissions. For example, the recording function may be manuallyactivated to start recording. Further details may be found in the User'sManual of the NiceLog™ product.

Recording device 24 is preferably in communication with a recordingagent 26 for controlling the process of recording, although optionallyboth recording device 24 and recording agent 26 may be present in asingle device, although separate devices are preferred. Alternatively,recording device 24 may optionally perform all of these functions.Recording agent 26 is preferably operated as a software module by acomputational device 28. According to the present invention, uponinitiation of the IP multimedia session, recording agent 26 determinesthat the session has been initiated and directs recording device 24 torecord the session. Optionally, only certain sessions are recorded. Inorder to support recording, the multimedia session is constructed as aconference call, and recording device 24 then becomes a participant inthat conference call.

FIG. 1 shows one exemplary implementation for supporting thesefunctions. As shown, LAN 14 also optionally and preferably is connectedto a conference controller 30, such as an MCU for example. Conferencecontroller 30 establishes the conference call. Preferably, LAN 14connects to a gatekeeper 32 according to the H.323 protocol, whichtranslates telephone numbers to IP addresses, and therefore enables theinitiating device to locate the other communication device (if presenton LAN 14). A non-limiting example of gatekeeper 32 is the MCS 7820product (Cisco Inc., San Jose, Calif., USA). Gatekeeper 32 mayoptionally be assisted in performing IP address resolution by a DHCPserver (not shown), which is connected to LAN 14. DHCP server assigns IPaddresses to IP telephone 12 and to other IP telephones and devices; theassigned addresses are then passed to gatekeeper 32 for performing IPaddress resolution.

For the first example of initiating device previously given, IPtelephone 12 on LAN 14 initiates the session, as explained also withregard to the flowchart of FIG. 2, showing an exemplary method accordingto the present invention for recording and/or otherwise monitoring IPmultimedia sessions. For example, IP telephone 12 may contact gatekeeper32 to initiate the session with an IP telephone 34 on computationaldevice 28 in stage 1. Both participants are therefore connected throughLAN 14.

In stage 2, the control path is established by gatekeeper 32, forexample according to the H.323 protocol, in order for the IP session tobe initiated. In stage 3, if recording device 24 is not present and/oroperational, preferably the normal IP communication session is enabledwith IP telephone 34. Alternatively, if recording device 24 is present,then recording agent 26 preferably identifies the incoming request toinitiate the session.

In stage 4, a recording agent control module 36, shown with regard toFIG. 1, preferably controls the conference call recording. Optionallyand more preferably, recording agent control module 36 sends a requestto initiate the conference call to gatekeeper 32. This requestpreferably includes a request to include recording device 24 in theconference call.

In stage 5, gatekeeper 32 sends a request to conference controller 30 toinitiate the IP multimedia session, with recording device 24 as aparticipant thereof In stage 6, conference controller 30 initiates theconference call between IP telephone 12 and IP telephone 34. In stage 7,recording device 24 is preferably added to the conference call.

A similar operation is performed if the session is to be establishedwith IP telephone 16 on WAN 18. As shown in FIG. 1, WAN 18 is optionallyconnected to LAN 14 through a router 38 (LAN 14 may optionally feature ahub 40).IP telephone 12 may again initiate the session by contactinggatekeeper 32; the remaining stages are performed substantially aspreviously described. Alternatively, IP telephone 16 may initiate thesession. In order for IP telephone 16 to initiate the session and therecording, preferably IP telephone 16 features recording agent 26 andrecording agent control module 36 as part of a single device. It shouldbe noted that only one of IP telephone 12 and IP telephone 16 requiresrecording agent 26 and recording agent control module 36, operateddirectly by the IP telephone itself (in the case of a “smart telephone”), or alternatively operated by a computational device which alsooperates the IP telephone, in order for the session to be recorded.

The operation is preferably adjusted somewhat if a telephony device 20communicating through a PSTN 22 is contacted by IP telephone 12 toinitiate the multimedia call and/or if telephony device 20 initiates thecall. In both cases, communication to and from telephony device 20passes through a gateway 42, for example in order to translate regularPSTN 22 communication to IP-based communication, such as H.323protocol-based communication for example. Gateway 42 then preferablycontacts gatekeeper 32 in order for telephony device 20 to be recognizedas a participant in the session. The remaining functions are similar tothose shown in FIG. 2. Gateway 42 may optionally be implemented as aCisco Internet Router 3620, for example (Cisco Inc., San Jose, Calif.,USA).

FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of an optional flow of operations accordingto the present invention. As shown, IP telephone 12 initiates thesession, through gatekeeper 32, to IP telephone 34. The session isimplemented as a conference call. Conference controller 30 enablesrecording device 24 to participate in the conference call, as well aspreferably enabling the conference call itself It should be noted thattypically that only information passing through arrows “A” and “B”, fromeach of IP telephone 12 and IP telephone 34 respectively, is recorded.Also, optionally and preferably, recording device 24 only receivescommunication through arrow “C”.

For this implementation, recording device 24 preferably has at leastone, and more preferably a plurality of, reserved telephone numberswhich correspond to actual telephone lines. Video and/or audio data mayoptionally be captured according to the RTP (real time protocol)protocol.

FIG. 4 shows another exemplary system 44 according to the presentinvention for selective recording of sessions. Similar components toFIG. 1 retain the same numbering. Now, recording device 24 is preferablycontained within a selective recorder 46, which also features ascheduler 48. Scheduler 48 may optionally be manual or automatic. Forthe latter implementation, scheduler 48 may optionally analyzeinformation about the IP multimedia session, such as the identity of theinitiating and/or receiving device, in order to determine whether thesession should be recorded. For the manual implementation, the user atthe receiving and/or initiating IP telephony device may optionallydetermine whether the session should be recorded.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of another exemplary method according to thepresent invention, with regard to the implementation of the presentinvention with a “hunt group”. As previously described, hunt groups usea plurality of virtual telephone numbers rather than fixed telephonelines that are reserved for particular telephone numbers. The presentinvention supports recording and/or otherwise monitoring IP multimediasessions with such hunt groups as shown in FIG. 5.

This preferred method is similar to that of FIG. 2 for stages 1–4. Instage 5, however, the gatekeeper identifies the hunt group which hasbeen called.

In stage 6, the gatekeeper searches for a free telephone line withinthat particular hunt group. In stage 7, the conference call isestablished through the conference controller, and the recording devicejoins the conference call in stage 8, as previously described.

According to optional but preferred implementations of the presentinvention, any of the above embodiments may be optionally implementedwith a “smart” telephone device in place of the computational device foroperating the recording agent and/or the recording agent control module36.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations,modifications and other applications of the invention may be made.

1. A method for recording at least a portion of a plurality of IP datasessions each being between at least a first communication device and asecond communication device through a network by a remotely locatedrecording device, comprising for each IP data session: initiating thedata session by said first communication device and establishing aconnection with said second communication device; implementing the datasession as a conference call through a conference controller in responseto initiating the data session such that said first and secondcommunication devices are respectively first and second participants;using the conference controller, entering the remotely located recordingdevice to said conference call as an additional participant, wherein theremotely located recording device receives as the additional participantat least the portion of the data session from each of the first andsecond participants; and recording the data session received as theadditional participant of said conference call using said recordingdevice.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data session is an IPtelephony session.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein initiating the datasession is detected by a recording agent, and said recording agentcontacts the recording device.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein therecording device joins the data session through a hunt group.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, including the additional step of the gatekeeperidentifying the hunt group.
 6. The method of claim 5, including theadditional step of the gatekeeper searching for a free line within theidentified hunt group.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the datasession is an IP multimedia session.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereininitiating the data session is detected by a recording agent, and saidrecording agent contacts the recording device.
 9. The method of claim 7,wherein said first communication device is a gateway for receivingcommunication through a PSTN.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein saidconference controller is a MCU.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein thestep of entering the recording device to said conference call is inresponse to a command that the data session is to be recorded.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, including the additional step of providing thecommand from a scheduler.
 13. The method of claim 12, including theadditional step of locating the scheduler with the recording device. 14.The method of claim 12, including the additional step of analyzinginformation about the IP data session at the scheduler to determinewhether the IP data session is to be recorded.
 15. The method of claim14, wherein the information includes the identity of at least one of thefirst and second communication devices.
 16. The method of claim 1,including the additional step of permitting a user of at least one ofthe first and second communication devices to determine whether thesession is to be recorded prior to entering the recording device as theadditional participant.
 17. The method of claim 1, wherein theconnection with the second communication device is established bypassing IP addresses to a gatekeeper for performing IP addressresolution and connecting to a device associated with the resolved IPaddress.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the conference controllerimplements said conference call in response to a request to initiate theconference call.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the request is fromat least one of the recording device, the first communication device,the second communication device, and an other component on the network.20. A system for recording an IP communication session through anetwork, comprising: (a) a first communication device for initiating theIP communication session; (b) a second communication device connected asa communication participant in the IP communication session; (c) aconference controller for implementing the IP communication session as aconference call; and (d) a recording device remote from the firstcommunication device and the second communication device and connectedas an additional communication participant in said conference call bythe conference controller to receive as the additional participant atleast the portion of the IP communication session from each of the firstand second communication devices, thereby to enable said recordingdevice to record the IP communication session received as the additionalparticipant of said conference call.
 21. The system of claim 20, furthercomprising a second communication device for participating in the IPcommunication session through said conference call, wherein said firstcommunication device is located on a separate network portion from saidsecond communication device.
 22. The system of claim 21, wherein saidseparate network portion is a different network segment.
 23. The systemof claim 21, wherein said separate network portion is a differentnetwork.
 24. The system of claim 20, wherein said conference controlleris a MCU.
 25. The system of claim 20, further comprising: (e) agatekeeper for receiving said request from said first communicationdevice to initiate the IP communication session and for sending arequest to said conference controller to initiate said conference call.26. The system of claim 25, further comprising: (f) a recording agentfor controlling said recording device.
 27. The system of claim 25,wherein the gatekeeper passes the communication session to the recordingdevice.
 28. The system of claim 26, further comprising: (g) a recordingagent control module for initiating participation of said recordingdevice in said conference call.
 29. The system of claim 26, wherein saidrecording device and said recording agent are implemented in a singledevice.
 30. The system of claim 26, further comprising a telephonedevice connected to said gatekeeper through a PSTN for participating inthe IP communication session as one of the first and secondcommunication devices.
 31. The system of claim 30, further comprising ascheduler for determining whether the IP communication session isrecorded, said scheduler controlling said recording device.
 32. Thesystem of claim 31, wherein said conference controller is a MCU.
 33. Thesystem of claim 31, wherein the scheduler analyzes information about theIP multimedia session to determine whether the IP communication sessionis to be recorded.
 34. The system of claim 33, wherein the informationincludes the identity of at least one of the first and secondcommunication devices.
 35. The system of claim 20, wherein the recordingdevice is present on the IP network with the conference controller. 36.The system of claim 20, wherein the conference controller enables therecording device to participate in the conference call, and wherein therecording device receives communication exclusively through theconference controller.